Kavika1S, I've had the green screen problem but usually holding down the power button till reboot fixes this. Perhaps resetting without the power plug pull will help. I picked mine up today from the repair shop (lightning strike) and the tech seemed to know these problems well. He did say that the unit seems to be having a hard time with the tv guide update that was sent through the cable early this month. Again I haven't had any problems. Also my unit was made the same day as yours and again since I upgraded the firmware all is well. Sounds like the problem may be with your cable. Not sure though.
Well, my DMR-E80H error proves to be a coincidental overlap with these issues. Yes, it died while dividing a program when the disk was more than half full. Since the machine wouldn't even start up anymore, I popped the drive and stuck it in my PC to try to overwrite the initial blocks with zeroes. No good, the drive itself is fried. It answers sense data with manufacturer and model, but all reads and writes fail. I cannot blame this on Panasonic, I'll buy a new 80GB drive and continue as before. As a side note, I'm returning the replacement I bought (I decided to return it before I realized I could fix the E80), the XS34, it was completely frustrating, and in my opinion inadequate for the task, but that's a topic for another thread.
I tried to update my software without any luck. I downloaded the DMRE85H file and placed it on my desktop. I then followed the instructions on the Panasonic website to copy this file to a CD-R. After starting the 85H I then opened the door and put in the disk and closed the door. The DVD light blinked about 7 or 8 times and then stopped. Everythig on the unit stayed the same no update or any changes. I then downloaded the file again and burned it to another CD-R using Nero so that I was sure the disk was finalizied. Again I followed the instructions and placed it in the DVD drive and the same thing happened. The DVD light flashed 7 or 8 times and as far as I can tell it did not recognise the cd in the drive or start the update process. Please advise what I may be doing wrong so that I can update to the new version of the software. Thank You
kossello, Not to dwell on the obvious, but did you unzip it first? You only copy over the file called PANA_DVD.FRM and you *must* fnalize the disk (looks like you did). It should be on a CD (I don't know if DVD will work), and the drive select on the DMR-E85 should be set to DVD and not HDD. When you insert the CD, look at the DISPLAY PANEL on the Panny. After a few seconds, it should either start flashing codes or say [something--I forget what, but it is a not-so-appropriate error message that means you don't need it for this machine]. If you get neither, it is possible that you downloaded the wrong file. If it still doesn't work, try the one from Roger Amadon's site--it worked on mine: http://www.dxcc.com/dmr-e85h.htm You are in the U.S. aren't you? bob
Copy protection, eh? Well, that must have been it, because de-routing it through the VCR as you suggested did the trick, although it makes my setup much more annoying. I have no interest in copying stuff, but I constantly find that copy protection schemes of all kinds make my life more complicated and prevent me from doing things that are perfectly legal. Arrgh! Thanks for the advice
Bob, Yes, I'm in the USA. It looks like I did not unzip the file. The file I downloaded said DMRE85.exe and the Panasonic website said not to change the name of the file. (There was no mention to unzip this file) This was the file I copied and burned to a disk. The new file I downloaded from the site you suggested (from Roger Amadon's site) is named Pana_dvd. I will try and copy and burn this file to a CD-R and install it tonight. Thank you again for all of your help.
kossello: One of Microsoft's more stupid things was to "hide" the filename "type" from the user. I suggest you go into "folder options" / "View" and uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" box. Then, you would know if you have the correct file. (As it turns out, the ".FRM" extension is claimed by Microsoft Visual Basic "FoRM" files. Panasonic is using it to mean "FiRMware" file.) The file that must be on the upgrade CD is: "Pana_DVD.FRM". The file you downloaded from the Panasonic site was a self-extracting ".EXE", which, when executed, would have created the proper ".FRM" file. Panasonic screwed up not telling you this. In fact, they specifically say not to alter the file as downloaded. Opps. Good Luck! Roger.
kossello said: Roger is right, you need to unzip the DMRE85.exe by simply running it--it's a self-extracting archive. When it opens, it has not only the Pana_DVD.FRM file, but a software license and, most importantly, the directions. When you create the CD, you only put the Pana_DVD.FRM file on it. bob
Bob - K2SMN I finally got the update performed on the recorder. I downloaded the file and saved it to the CD-R. I used Nero to do the file transfer and close the disk. When adding the file it did show the FRM extension. It is a bit confusing since my computer (Windows XP) did try to show the file as a text file (forms). But again, thanks to both of you for providing the missing information and support to go ahead and get it done. I still have not tried again to burn a DVD-R on the unit. I only had 8X TDK disks that I used on the computer and it was not recognized by the recorder. I know the disks are good since I have been converting tapes, etc. to my computers hard drive and Studio 9 to edit the video and then save them to the disk. I have purchased some new DVD-R's that say 1X - 8X but have not tried them yet. In reading some threads on the site it sounds like maybe with the update I just completed the old 8X TDK disks may work. I have used the Panasonic DVD-RAM disks and they copy the video with no problems. Unfortunatley these disks are not compatable with my computer so I can not transfer the video using the DVD-RAM disks. I will keep you advised. Thanks again for all your help.
I bought a couple of new DVD-Ram drives for under $15.00 each for my computers on eBay using this search string: http://search.ebay.com/DVD-Ram_Inte...saslopZ1QQsatitleZDVDQ2dRamQQsorefinesearchZ1 bob
Had the panny back for a week or so now with a new problem. When using the tv guide feature the remote becomes unresponsive. The arrow keys will not let me navigate the screen. Sometimes the channel up & down will let me scroll page by page and the enter key will work but the arrows will not. If I turn the unit off and then on again it seems to fix the problem until the next day and then the same problem. When this was at the repair shop the tech said tv guide sent out an update that was causing this issue. Anyone's panny been doing this too? Has it just started this recently? In the six months I've owned the unit this may have happened a couple time but now it's daily. Thanks, Joe
My fault, The repair tech said there were issues with the update but did not say this problem specifically nor did he specify any problems specifically. Joe
UPDATE: Maybe this will help someone else who is searching the 'net for a solution to Panasonic's problematic DMR-E85, as I did. Yes, I finally got this machine to work, but it required a great deal of time & patience. This recorder is a very tempermental, buggy PC, & I basically approached it w/ that in mind. (The following is detailed & tedious, but it is the long, ardous process that finally got this thing to work again.) After that first cycle, I tried another series of steps that took me thru another cycle: From OFF, pressed STOP + CH UP^. This opened the dvd tray, & SELF CHECK, followed by OPEN. Ch 1 appeared, then GUIDE. It locked up, so I powered off w/ 15" hold on POWER, which brought me back to OFF, w/ 12:00 flashing. Pressed OPEN/CLOSE, then got PLEASE WAIT, SELF CHECK, Ch. 1.... ad nauseum. The events didn't always happen predictably or follow in any sort of logic or pattern that would any kind of sense. The STOP + CH UP^ seemed to get the best response. Eventually, after innumerable attempts of doing this, w/ variations of powering off, etc. (see original post), I suddenly got a reading of R 1:02, the amount of time left on the hard drive that I could record on. I immediately tried playing a DVD, which worked, but locked up after showing the entire thing. Went thru the cycle again, & after some time, it started working. This time, I quickly went to NAVIGATOR, & erased as much as possible from the Hard Drive. Apparently, if it is 80% full, it tends to lock up. Obviously, after this, I will transfer recordings to DVD as soon as possible. At this point, it seems to work w/o problems, altho I am reluctant to shut it off for fear of going thru another cycle of frustrations. Therefore, I have yet to try to get the TV Guide to work again. Just satisfied to have a working recorder & DVD player for the moment. Hope this helps. Variations that work or have some effect are: STOP + CH UP^ (w/ unit off) = Opens stuck tray CH UP/DOWN (w/ unit on) until 12:00 flashes, continue holding until BYE, is supposed to lead to initializing back to factory defaults. But it never worked for me. TV GUIDE (on remote) + UP/DOWN on unit is supposed to bring you to setting up the TV Guide, but it never worked either. Good luck to all suffering thru similar problems. Perhaps you might inform the forum of how things develop.
Jpoe: Your TV Guide problem sounds like the one I had. I never had the green screen, just annoying lock ups with the TV Guide. I haven't had any trouble since putting the firmware update on, however I hedged my bet by deleting 95% of the channels the TV guide is updating and only downloading the 10 or so that I regularly use. My theory was information overload.....
Next time you have to mess with it, unplug it for a full minute. This does wonders. I had one fill the hard disk completely and stopped recording--but didn't give any error. I figured it out and deleted a bunch of stuff after off-loading it onto DVD-RAM. The next time I powered it up, I got a mesage that the rcording wasn't finished because the disk was full. It wasn't, of course, and all my sheduled recordings were done. I can only assume that this was the original message I never got--delayed until the next power up. It makes sense, as it is indicative of the mickey-mouse programming that went into this implementaion. To initialize ALL parameters to factory defaults: With the unit OFF, press "Skip Rev" ( |<< ) and "Time Slip" and "Open/Close" for 5 seconds. All of these are on the unit--not the remote. Never heard ofthis one. You can do that with a menu command from the TV Guide Listing or Schedule screen. If it doesn't go far enough, set your zip code to 99999 and power cycle, then it should. My greatest frustration comes when *part* of my TV Listings don't load. They never seem to try again, unil that date has passed. bob
I had a problem with my E95HS that may shed some light on other symptoms I've been reading about (such as selectively defective controller buttons). The Trigger: What I think set off the problem was, I tried to set up a recording of a show that was already in progress. This is a Major No-No on some other Guide+ Systems, such as the RCA/Thompson series. I thought the Panasonics might be immune, but they appear to be susceptible, as well. I don't remember if I tried to do a Guide+ recording, or just hit the <REC> button, because I tried a lot of other things later on, and I'm now fuzzy about the first step. The Symptoms: The show acted as if it were recording, except none of the recording indicators came on and there was no new box in the Direct Vavigator for the new show. However, I could do none of the things that are barred when you are recording (edit, erase, change channels, etc.), although I did *not* get the usual "Not allowed while recording" message. It just acted like the buttons were bad. I powered the unit down and back up again (several times) and could change channels, but the remote functions barred during edit would not function. The buttons were ignored, but since pretty much all of the buttons have their functions duplicated on one of the menus, I tried using menus as well. The menu items (i.e. Sub-Menu | Erase) were not grayed out--they acted normal when you selected them (changed color and then dissappeared with the menu)--they just had zero effect. Scheduled recordings acted like they were working--but with no recording indicators, editing functions were ignored during the entire allocated period--and no recording was made to disk. When recordings weren't scheduled, editing worked fine. The Solution: I copied down the week's worth of scheduled recordings on the 7-day/24-hour chart I'd designed for this purpose (I've learned my lesson from past losses), and then, while the power was still on, pushed and held the power button until *all* front panel indcators were dark except the clock. It took about ten seconds. I then powered back up, got the <<<Please Wait>>> message followed by the <<<Self Test>>> message. The last channel I was watching was then displayed on the front panel--all by itself for 10-15 seconds--and then the clock and the rest of the normal status indicators came on. At that point, everything looked fine--all of my scheduled recordings were still there, thank goodness! In about another 15-20 seconds, it automatically started recording the end of a scheduled show (already in progress) normally. This is a show that it had steadfastly refused to record, earlier. That show terminated normally and the show immediately following (on a different channel) began a few seconds later. I'm watching it now--time delayed--while it's still recording. It *LOOKS* like the hard power-cycle (press-and-hold) did the trick. Only time will tell. I did *not* unplug the machine (that was to be tried next if this didn't work). I'll keep you posted if anything new develops. [bold]Added the Next Morning:[/bold] Well, that didn't last! :{ I got up this morning and the movie I tried ^again^ to record wasn't there. I then tried a timer recording and a Guide+ recording, ten minutes apart, with a hard power-cycle between them. Neither worked. So I did another hard power-down and unplugged the unit for a couple of minutes. It powered up fine, and the greyed-out scheduled recordings which I had deleted just before the power cycle had magically returned (Overridden schedule conflicts and weekly shows with no episode available, due to incompletely loaded guide). I tried another timed recording and it worked. It's on now. More later..... BTW, another "irregularity" I did just before the failure was to stop a Regular recording before it had finished, because I already had that episode. I Don't know if that was part of the failure or not--I'm just documenting all possible causes. bob
I have a question about the E85H. I was recording today and my son wanted to use his Gamecube. It is hooked to L3 input. I couldn't get to L3 while recording was occurring. I thought that I should have been able to. Please let me know, as I was hoping to record Battlestar Galattica marathoon on Wednesday. I am using TV Guide recording. I would assume that timer recording will react the same way. If not, I guess I will need to hook gamecube directly to TV for that day. Thanks in advance, Ron
Like a VCR, The Panny PVRs show only the input they are recording from and will not let you change channels *or* inputs during recording. I split mine through a VCR to the TV, so when recording, I can switch the *TV* input. Isn't there a delay in his gamecube reaction, when going through the Panny? bob
Bob I have no problem watching other channels while recording. I just leave the unit off and change channels with top chanel changer (Hit vcr/aux button, get it to Channel 3 or 4) and you can go from there. Gamecube reaction time seems same as always. Thanks, Ron
Ron, Since you mention the "Top" channel changer, I am assuming that you are already using an external box--either a cable box, vcr, video switch, or multiple-input TV; OR, if you are referring to the TV channel changer on the remote, then you already have a splitter of some sort on your line--either RF or video, depending on your TV and other variables. In either case, you should have no troble routing the game around the PVR. After all, he really doen't need to record his games, does he? bob
